Yakiniku Q-WA @ Chinatown

This was an interesting place, my friend said, let's go try! 

So, okay lar, we went. 

At first I wondered if the ambience, and the food, at Yakiniku Q-WA would be good- People's Park Center in Chinatown at the junction of Eu Tong Sen Street and Upper Cross Street is, after all, not often known for things like Japanese-style BBQ

But when we got there- at 8pm- I found myself genuinely surprised.

Yakiniku Q-WA feels more like a drinking spot than a dinner one. 

And perhaps I should like, like some of my fellow diners, gone for a chug of beer.

But we decided to do green tea.

And green tea we did.

Even if it seemed (admittedly) a little incongruent in a place located on the ground floor at the back of the shopping center somewhere between the delivery ramp and the back doors of the mall. 

It might have felt less odd had we had our meal during the daytime. 

But here we were, after dusk- and this particular strata mall exudes a very different vibe between day, and night.

I can't really describe it, but shall we say that the night vibe is a little warmer, a little more congenial, and way less stoic than how it feels in the day time. 

We chose to sit indoors at Yakiniku Q-WA.

Which we later realized we should not have. 

Because People's Park Center is, effectively, a strata mall, and like all strata malls in this country, their air-conditioning system is centralized, meaning that every day, promptly, at 830pm, the air con goes off.

There was no other ventilation at Yakiniku Q-WA.

Still it didn't dampen our enjoyment of the food.  

What I particularly liked was the speed. 

There was no fuss in setting up the grill.

Neither was there any fuss in starting up the fire, everything.

There was a bit of confusion when it came to the food, but fortunately we hadn't started on the dish not in our ord,er, and we just swopped it back for the right one anyway.

The meats- out of which we ordered three, or was it four- were brought to our table beautifully arranged on their platters chiller fresh. 

Some of the meats (like the beef) had lots of marbling.

Others didn't. 

It didn't matter to us- everything was as good as the way we wanted it anyway.

There're several ways to go about your yakiniku.

One way is to throw all your meats onto the grill and wait for them to cook as you flip them individually over and over one by one. .

The other way is to do it two at a time. 

We chose the latter. 

It's easier. 

You just need to concentrate on two small slices of meat at any one time and there's no worry about whether the other pieces will burn as you're busy flipping over one.  

Of course the grill might look a little empty. 

But you can place some slow-cook foods on it whilst the meat(s) grill and just let those foods take their time.

We had a lovely time with the unmarinated pork slices and the wagyu.

Here at Yakiniku Q-WA you get two dipping sauces to go with your meats. 

My friend liked the garlic. (Was it garlic?)

I liked the teriyaki (It was sweeter)

But it were the  vegetables here that interested me most of all. 

It's funny- at other times I might not have taken notice of the mushrooms, the onions or the lotus roots- but today I did. 

Grilled mushrooms, with their slightly smoky, burnt, burnt taste, are a favorite of mine. 

Grilled, almost burnt onions, too. 

But it were the lotus roots that won me over. 

I'd thought they'd be boring, and plain. 

Instead they turned out to be wonderfully crisp, with a hint of the faintly sweet root, and great to munch upon altogether. 

Our meats too didn't take long to cook. 

The wagyu was cooked almost immediately.

The pork (being thicker) took slightly longer. 

It was all very clean. 

And I greatly enjoyed the meal. 

Not only the clean-tasting grilled meats which we cooked by ourselves over the dome shaped grill, ,but also the fried chicken skin which we ordered as an afterthought- after our meats- and found- to our delight- it was very, very tasty.